A question I've often seen posted by newcomers is "Which Linux Distribution do I choose?". This post is to hopefully answer some of these questions..

Choosing a Linux Distribution
There are gazillions of Linux distributions out there, and choosing one out of so many can be a real toughie! In my opinion, the choice should be made keeping in mind certain criteria. Note that most of the following distros come with all the basic tools expected to be used:

1)Install or not to Install?
A Linux install has most newcomers jittery, with the ever-pervasive thought of trashing an existing windows partition. Well, the solution is easy! Use a live file system Linux CD-ROM.

Live what??
A Live FileSystem CD-ROM is a linux distribution which runs completely off a CD, and has a lot of tools on it, in a compressed format. By "Live", we mean that a temporary filesystem is created in the RAM, and that is where all the operations take place - (in simple terms). No modifications are made to the existing hard-disk. So all that needs to be done, is to boot off the CD, and go into linux. Explore, and when done, eject the CD. You're back to the original OS you were running.

When you're comfortable with using such a system, a distro can be installed on the harddisk.

Live Distros:
i)Knoppix: One of the most popular in this category, it is based on Debian Linux, and has one of the best tool collections, as well as a fabulous hardware detection system.
www.knoppix.de

ii)Mandrake Move: Similar to Knoppix, but based on the Mandrake Linux Distribution.
www.mandrake.com

2)Target Audience

Neophytes/Newcomers
There are various distributions which come to mind. These must be installed on the machine, and may either co-exist with an existing OS (such as windows), or be installed afresh. An analysis:

i) RedHat Linux (now Fedora)
This is one of the most popular distributions available today. It is used majorly for servers and personal use (different versions, of course!).

ii)SuSE Linux
A beautiful distro, SuSE comes integrated with various tools for configuration, an easy installation. Very popular.

Pros:Large number of windows compatible packages, easy installation
Cons:Not as extensively documented as RedHat, hardware detection isnt as effective, Only available in parts of the world from software resellers or via FTP install, includes proprietary components, which prevents re-distribution.
Latest Version:9.0
www.suse.com

iii)Mandrake Linux
A very user friendly distribution. Lots of tools, and addons, including complete office packages, games and more! Moreover, it has a very easy installation procedure, and tends to detect most hardware correctly.

Pros: User-friendly, graphical configuration utilities, enormous community support, NTFS partition resizing
Cons: Some releases are buggy, the releases are initially made available to MandrakeClub members only. Tends to become too newbie friendly for powerusers Latest Version: 10.1
www.mandrake.com

iii)Gentoo Linux
Gentoo Linux is a source-based distribution. While the installation media provide various levels of pre-compiled binary packages to get a basic Linux system up and running, the idea behind Gentoo is to compile all source packages on the user's computer.
Pros:Painless installation of individual software packages, highly up-to-date, the "geek feeling" of building a distribution tailored to user's needs.
Cons:Takes a helluva time to build. A system restart or crash may result in extensive hair-tearing!
www.gentoo.org

iv)Live File System Distros
There are various distros made specifically for certain tasks and situations, such as firewalling, intrusion detection, network setup, development, education, etc. to provide a list here is impossible, due to the sheer volumes of such distros. To find more , do a google.

v)Xandros. Lycoris and other Windows like distros
These are linux distributions which have been designed to remake the windows look and feel, in order to provide new users with familiar environments. IMHO, these distros have a blatantly visible problem : they are mostly commercial (thats okay..) and the attempy to minutely recreate an existing environment tends to take away the fresh look and feel which other distros can offer.

Xandros Update- Sept 10, 2004

I recently installed the Xandros open desktop edition on a laptop, and here are some notes on it.

Xandros is a very user friendly OS, with its primary criteria being ease of use and familiarity for those users who've recently switched from windows to linux. It offers excellent hardware detection, and can do Instant plug and play of a lot of devices like usb memory sticks and digital cameras. The interface is very much like windows, with all the right menus and things. It offers a variety of applications like most other distros, and comes bundled with an easy to use CD-Writer program, which is run directly from the file manager itself. It runs kernel 2.4.26, and is based on debian. So, apt-get and dpkg works well. The only glitch i faced was the non-availability of a Dialup client with support for terminal authentication.

The OpenDesktop addition has a couple of cons however: The CD writer's max speed is limited to 4X. Secondly, it uses a lot of propreitary technology, which might lead to some antagonism with the proponents of FLOSS.

vi)Damn Small LinuxUpdate
Acting on suggestions, I've downloaded this iso, and it ran beautifully on an old p1 166 Mhz machine. The iso is only 50mb, which makes it one of the smallest distros around. It is live-cd, but also offers a hard-disk install.

Pros: Small, easy to use, good range of applications, runs well on older hardare
Cons: Its small footprint compromises on quite a few advanced level tools, substitutes most mem intensive apps with smaller ones.
Latest Version:damnsmalllinux-0.6.1:
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org

UpdateTiny Disros/Small Linux Distros
An important aspect of various linux distributions, is the size of its footprint. By footprint, we mean the amount of space it takes on the harddisk, or anyother media where it has been installed. A large footprint means that the distro has a lot of bundled tools and utilities to make life easier. However, this isn't always beneficial since it also means that the distro will not run on older hardware, or in constrained environments.

Step in the Tiny Distros. These only occupy a small amount of space, and mostly fit into either a floppy (or 2!). Others may also be designed for USB Flash drives. We take a look at the more famous ones here.

i)MuLinux
It is an open script-based system, which includes a pluggable, incremental file-system. (The various add-ons may be inserted and removed without compromising the functionality). The System runs in RAM, and does not require installation, but it can be "cloned" to the HD or a CD-ROM. Also, the same installation archive is used for Linux and Windows users.

Pros: Small footprint (1 floppy), easy to use, good range of applications, runs well on older hardare, supports UMS-DOS installs (meaning, you can install it over DOS, and run it from there as a batch file)
Cons: Its small footprint compromises on quite a few advanced level tools, substitutes most mem intensive apps with smaller ones.
Latest Version:14r0
http://mulinux.sunsite.dk/mulinux.html

This is just to help you get moving on your way to become a Linux guru! Use SFDC to answer any queries you might have!
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is another good means of clearing doubts. Read more elsewhere on this site.. There are various channels on the freeenode server, like #security-forums and #linuxhelp where a lot og gurus may be found.

Good luck!

[note: some material has been derived from the web.]

Last edited by viksit on Thu Sep 09, 2004 8:14 pm; edited 6 times in total

Really useful doc , has helped me choose the right path !! or so i think anyway ! redhat as there is loads of support & documentation.
i am just going to use this as a way to familiarize myself with Linux.

According to my experience, every one of the os mentioned is free to use in a business environment. Redhat, Suse, and probably some of the others also have business versions (see enterprise) of their software, which would have some more advanced features (for example, Redhat Enterprise has a lot of load balancing technologies in their enterprise products, and frankly, it's just a mostly different OS than fedora).

For the vast majority of berginner and intermediate folks, I would suggest Fedora or Debian. I've had good experiences with both for home linux boxes.

What's your take on SimplyMepis? I recently took a look at that one, which was actually my very first experience with Linux. I actually thought the install process was pretty good, and for learning my way around I turned to their forums (which I expected to do for anything I tried out). Just as a point of reference, I have, within the span of about a week, tried out Xandros, Ubuntu, and read up on Vector (I need to get another hard drive before I work on this one). I feel that Mepis gave me a great advantage in that I felt totally comfortable digging around the various distros, but I am about to go back to the original. O ya, everyone's got their original that just can't be beat

Yes, i think Mepis is a very userfriendly distro (i have just tried it for a few minutes, so i don't really know much about it).

Another distro that definitely should be added to the list of beginner-friendly distros is Ubuntu/Kubuntu. Ubuntu has become on of the biggest distros (listed as number one at Distrowatch right now), and version 5.04 has just been released.

On my main-computer i am running Arch Linux and Slackware, but on my laptop i am dual-bootinh Arch and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is very easy to maintain, which is excellent for my laptop-use (i don't want to spend a lot of time on this computer, i want things to just work out-of-the-box).

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